High Fashion Silk aims to improve its technology level and innovative skills, using its 38 patents and advanced equipment from Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland and Japan. The facility is the only National Silk Product Development Base approved by the China National Textile Development Center.

Textile margins wear thin

Silk fair kicks off in Hangzhou

Lin added that the company will focus on making high-quality, finished silk products, using Chinese or popular elements of style.

The company has also developed a new tourism business, with a national 4A level tourist attraction, consisting of a time-honored mulberry garden, a silk culture museum and a shopping mall for silk products.

To deepen its cooperation with Uniqlo, a new factory will be set up in Kyoto, Japan, soon.

Besides High Fashion Group, the parent company of High Fashion Silk, other leading silk companies in China include Hangzhou-based Wensli Group, Zhejiang Jiaxin Silk Co Ltd and Jiangsu Xinmin Textile Science and Technology Co Ltd.

China's exports of genuine silk products in 2013 totaled $3.5 billion, up 3 percent, while imports in the sector rose 3.5 percent to $260 million, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.

Shanghai-based CharColn Consulting said the value of Chinese silk products accounts for less than 0.5 percent of the nation's entire textile industry, but these are high-value products with a strong cultural aspect.

China is the cradle of cultivated silk, and silkworms were being bred as long ago as 6,000 years.